Logan Sargeant agony after FREAK result ends US rookie's F1 qualifying bid

Stuart Hodge
Saturday 4 March 2023 20:57 - Updated: 07:46

It was agony for Williams rookie Logan Sargeant on his F1 qualifying bow in Bahrain on Saturday as a freak result robbed him of a dream start.

The American missed out on a spot in Q2 at the Bahrain Grand Prix after clocking exactly the same time as McLaren man Lando Norris. But the British star set his 1:31.652 first in the McLaren, so he progressed in P15 while Sargeant was left to rue a missed opportunity.

Afterwards his immediate reaction was "not good enough", though he was gutted to miss out in such freak circumstances.

He admitted: "That was definitely frustrating, just to miss out on it like that. To be honest I feel like I shouldn't have put us in that position - I had a car that should have brought me through to Q2 and I just made a little mistake in Sector 1 that cost us today."

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Despite Sargeant's failure to make Q2 it was a positive day for Williams, with his team-mate Albon progressing from Q1. The 22-year-old American is in upbeat mood ahead of Sunday's race (1800 local time, 1500 UK, 1600 CET, 1000 EST).

"I think I've laid a good foundation for myself to build off of. The pace is there so we just need to start minimising those mistakes and capitalising.

"Obviously race running is completely different to quali but from the long runs I've done I've felt quite comfortable. We're just gonna have to wait and see - focus on getting off the line clean first and go from there."

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